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Old 05-03-2013, 11:30 AM
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toc (Tim)
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New high sensitivity full-frame CMOS sensor

Saw this on the interwebs:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/2013/03...sor-for-videos

Could be interesting...
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Old 05-03-2013, 11:33 AM
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Oops, double post. My bad.
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Old 05-03-2013, 02:30 PM
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Yeah here's another link about it


http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2013/03/ca...s-in-the-dark/


Mark
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Old 05-03-2013, 06:24 PM
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Straight from the horse's mouth:

http://www.canon.com/news/2013/mar04e.html

It's apparently a 36 mm full-frame sensor that uses 19 um pixels - which I think works out to be approximately 1080p video resolution.

There's a sample video - it's quite impressive, especially the Geminid meteor scene.

Apparently it's just a prototype at this stage, with no immediate plans for production.
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Old 05-03-2013, 06:50 PM
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Imagine the potential resolution gains if deep sky frames could be captured in fractions of a 2nd, as we currently can for planetary objects. Will it be physically possible with sensors in 20 years?
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Old 05-03-2013, 06:57 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RobF View Post
Imagine the potential resolution gains if deep sky frames could be captured in fractions of a 2nd, as we currently can for planetary objects. Will it be physically possible with sensors in 20 years?
Shot noise is a fundamental physical limitation unless we think of a clever way to make significantly bigger apertures practical, Rob. You can't make a sensor with better than 100% QE.
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Old 05-03-2013, 08:04 PM
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Sigh. Damned physical laws
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Old 05-03-2013, 08:15 PM
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Rick,

You can make a sensor with more than 100% Qe
Its called a PhotoMultiplier.

They just havent done it commercially in large Silicon semiconductor arrays yet with a large Dynamic range.
The High Gain Avalanche Photodiodes only have single or small array of detectors.

SiOnyx's Black Silicon has looked extremely promising for years but seems to be taking an aeon to get to market but In-Q-Tel's investment in the co. last year would indicate that the prospects are still looking good
However given that In-Q-Tel is a US not for profit military investment vehicle - we'll probably not be seeing the technology in our amateur hands for a long while !

They used to have a detailed Technology section on their website but I don't see anything about how it works, how it performs etc is gone completely.
I suspect that since superior dark imaging/night vision is a huge strategic advantage - so it always seems to get snaffled up by the military - depriving us poor amateurs !!!

Rally

Quote:
Originally Posted by RickS View Post
Shot noise is a fundamental physical limitation unless we think of a clever way to make significantly bigger apertures practical, Rob. You can't make a sensor with better than 100% QE.

Last edited by rally; 08-03-2013 at 09:56 PM. Reason: typo - missed the word "don't"
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Old 05-03-2013, 09:25 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rally View Post
Rick,

You can make a sensor with more than 100% Qe
Its called a PhotoMultiplier.

They just havent done it commercially in large Silicon semiconductor arrays yet with a large Dynamic range.
The High Gain Avalanche Photodiodes only have single or small array of detectors.

SiOnyx's Black Silicon has looked extremely promising for years but seems to be taking an aeon to get to market but In-Q-Tel's investment in the co. last year would indicate that the prospects are still looking good
However given that In-Q-Tel is a US not for profit military investment vehicle - we'll probably not be seeing the technology in our amateur hands for a long while !

They used to have a detailed Technology section on their website but I see anything about how it works, how it performs etc is gone completely.
I suspect that since superior dark imaging/night vision is a huge strategic advantage - so it always seems to get snaffled up by the military - depriving us poor amateurs !!!

Rally
Rally,

My knowledge of photomultipliers is pretty rusty (last time I remember reading about them they still used vacuum tubes!) but I don't see how they would get around the fundamental problem of shot noise. The limitation is that you only receive a small number of photons from a dim object. A photomultiplier can't create any information that isn't available in that original signal. It can only apply gain to that signal. You might as well take the digital output of your 100% QE sensor and just multiply it by 5

I would think that a QE greater than 100% implies the ability to detect photons that don't exist. That would certainly be a clever trick.

Cheers,
Rick.
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Old 07-03-2013, 11:07 AM
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You are indeed right, both image intensifiers and EMCCDs have 20%-80% QE depending upon materials, build and wavelength.

There is an important point with regard to what the amplification does - it's analog. You can't meaningfully increase a digital signal - it is what it is - but if you're amplifying the analog signal you can potentially increase signal _before_ the digitisation takes place, and since this is a major source of noise you can potentially gain signal.

Of course image intensifiers are also useful even if they are noisy because they present a bright image when you need it to kill your enemies in the dark. The noise in this case is not terribly relevant.

Cheers,
Cam

Quote:
Originally Posted by RickS View Post
Rally,

My knowledge of photomultipliers is pretty rusty (last time I remember reading about them they still used vacuum tubes!) but I don't see how they would get around the fundamental problem of shot noise. The limitation is that you only receive a small number of photons from a dim object. A photomultiplier can't create any information that isn't available in that original signal. It can only apply gain to that signal. You might as well take the digital output of your 100% QE sensor and just multiply it by 5

I would think that a QE greater than 100% implies the ability to detect photons that don't exist. That would certainly be a clever trick.

Cheers,
Rick.
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Old 08-03-2013, 08:48 PM
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http://nofilmschool.com/2013/03/cano...nsor-see-dark/

It is pretty interesting. The night sky shots and full moon shots are impressive.

It is on display in Tokyo right now.
www.shopbiz.jp/en/ss/
and a truly enormous sensor:
http://www.canon.com/technology/approach/special/cmos.html

Last edited by Poita; 08-03-2013 at 09:00 PM.
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Old 08-03-2013, 11:01 PM
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Thanks for posting the links! The video is amazing; especially the side of the house shot in moonlight!

Peter
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Old 10-03-2013, 04:30 PM
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That would be fabulous if it was under $2000. It would be a big threat to the traditional CCD stronghold in dedicated astro cameras. This is what I was saying in another thread. There is a lot of research and development going on with CMOS sensors and it would appear next to none with CCDs.

Greg.
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